YOU’VE BEEN HAD
RECENT SURVEY SAYS MEDIA
WATCHERS ILL INFORMED ON GUNS
Too many people who watch left-leaning news broadcasts overestimate
the number of murders committed with rifles, the new survey says.)
In a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute, it was revealed only 30% of MSNBC viewers and only 22% of those who watch CNN “correctly estimated the number of homicides committed with rifles as between 100 and 500” on an annual basis.
Alarmingly, 43% of CNN viewers and 40% of MSNBC viewers think rifles are used in more than 500 homicides every year. Eighteen percent (18%) of those surveyed believe more than 1,000 people are murdered each year with rifles.
Only 19% of Fox News viewers think rifles are used in more than 500 homicides each year, the survey discovered.
I make a habit of reminding readers that only a fraction of all homicides in any given year are committed with rifles. That’s not me talking, it’s the FBI Uniform Crime Report, which is available online. Just use a search engine to look it up.
No wonder hordes of people blindly subscribe to the nonsense that so-called “assault rifles” should be banned. They are frequently described as “weapons of war” (they’re not) or demonized as “high power killing machines” when a typical hunting rifle is far more powerful.
The survey was conducted April 29 – May 3 by contacting 2,000 likely U.S. voters. That’s double the usual 1,000 people contacted for opinion polls, with a margin of sampling error at +/- 2 percentage points and a 95% level of confidence.
Could it be that some news outlets over-sensationalize stories involving semi-auto rifles?
Remember this name: Justin Haskins. He is the Heartland Institute’s editorial director and research fellow. He had this to say: “There is a strong correlation between a likely voter’s favorite television news outlet and his or her understanding of basic facts about police shootings and homicides involving rifles.”
“Viewers who identified CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or NBC as their ‘favorite’ TV news outlet are significantly more likely to overestimate the number of homicides that occur each year in the United States involving rifles, including so-called ‘assault rifles,’” he added.
“For example,” Haskins reported, “46% of CNN viewers and 41% of NBC viewers overestimated the number of homicides involving rifles, compared to just 19% of those who say they don’t watch network news and 18% who said Fox News is their cable news network of choice.”
Like it or not, that’s significant.
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/rasmussenheartland-poll-police-shootings
More of these—knives of any kind—are used in murderss annually than rifles,
but not enough people know this.)
I advised readers last October, and the two previous Octobers, that far more people are murdered with knives and other cutting instruments than are killed with rifles of any kind, or shotguns.
In fact, the number of stabbing victims each year is typically far higher than the number of rifle and shotgun victims combined.
According to a Rasmussen news release, “Eighteen percent (18%) of Fox News viewers accurately estimated the number of homicides committed with knives annually, as did 17% of CNN viewers and 12% of MSNBC viewers. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of MSNBC viewers believe knives are used in fewer than 100 homicides a year, as do 26% of CNN viewers and 23% of Fox News viewers.”
Translation: Many people woefully underestimate the number of knife-related homicides annually.
Remember Elliot Rodger, the young fellow who murdered six people in Isla Vista back in 2014? Frequently called the “Isla Vista gunman,” he actually murdered half of his victims with a knife. He fatally shot the others, injured several people with bullets and by hitting them with his car. Too many people think he shot all of them because of his misleading nickname.
Rodger passed three different California background checks and went through three 10-day waiting periods. This was no spur-of-the-moment act. He planned the mayhem for a rather long time.
Bet You Didn’t Read This
Perhaps the most alarming thing about this survey is most people apparently didn’t know about it.
I could only find two media references to the survey. One was published by WIBC and the other by WBAP. (Links are below.)
This is important because of the following:
In his report, Heartland’s Haskins noted, “Compared to viewers of Fox News, ‘another’ cable news outlet (such as The Blaze TV or Newsmax), and those who do not watch television news, viewers of CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC were substantially more likely to overestimate the number of fatal police shootings of unarmed African Americans.”
According to Rasmussen/Heartland, “50% of Likely U.S. Voters who say MSNBC or CNN is their favorite cable news outlet believe more than 100 unarmed African Americans were fatally shot by police in 2020. By contrast, only 22% of Fox News viewers believe police shot more than 100 unarmed black people last year.”
Even more alarming, the survey revealed “Nearly a quarter of CNN viewers (24%) and almost one-in-five MSNBC viewers (19%) think cops fatally shot more than 500 unarmed black suspects last year, but only 9% of Fox News viewers think so. Fox News viewers (60%) were about three times more likely than viewers of MSNBC (19%) or CNN (23%) to correctly estimate the number of unarmed black people shot and killed by police in 2020 as less than 50. Sixty percent (60%) of talk radio listeners also estimated the number correctly.”
This suggests talk radio listeners appear to be better-informed about such a toxic subject than viewers of establishment media news outlets. Long story short: Do your homework!
https://www.wbap.com/news/liberal-media-viewers-misinformed-about-us-crime-rasmussen-poll/
You don’t suppose some New Yorker might want one of these if he or she were ever attacked by a slasher, do you?)
You Don’t Suppose …
Could a gun rights organization have more on the ball than the mayor of New York City?
After a group of thugs went on a slashing spree down in the subway, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms suggested the Big Apple needs to reform its concealed carry laws “to fight back and defend themselves against such viciousness.”
Noting felony assaults have reportedly gone up 25 % this year over last under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, CCRKBA’s Alan Gottlieb had this observation: “The mere thought somebody might be able to fight back with a legally carried firearm can have a serious deterrent effect.”
Not that such a thing could happen under de Blasio or Gov. Andrew Cuomo for that matter, CCRKBA isn’t impaired by rose-colored glasses when it comes to dealing with a criminal element. Gottlieb described random slashings as “barbaric.”
Turning the gun control lexicon upside down, Gottlieb released a statement declaring, “Common sense dictates the necessity for a dramatic change of policy. New York must reform its carry laws and streamline the process for getting a carry license. No law-abiding citizen should be expected to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops now in place, or endure the costs associated with getting a carry permit in the Big Apple. This sort of crime should never happen anywhere, especially in a country where the right to keep and bear arms is supposed to be sacrosanct.”
https://www.ccrkba.org/ccrkba-new-york-subway-slashings-underscore-need-for-ccw-reform/
